Kristina Forest

But yeah, they didn't ask me any questions.

And so I was a writing arts major, which I think is a major that's particular to my college, which was Rowan University.

And so I had to take several creative writing classes while I was there.

And I had a few professors who read some of my short stories, which were primarily middle grade and YA.

They encouraged me to apply to get my master of fine arts, which was great because I had no idea what I was going to do after graduation.

And these few professors encouraged me to apply to grad school.

And so I applied to the new school in New York City.

And I was accepted into the Writing for Children program.

So then I moved.

And while I was studying, I had a few internships because I thought it would be important to learn the inside of the publishing industry if I wanted to be an author.

I was like, essentially, I wanted to know how the sausage was made.

My first internship was at Macmillan in their children's publishing department.

And I wanted to stay in New York.

You know, like a lot of people, I moved there and fell completely in love.

It's still my favorite city.

And it's very expensive.

So I needed a job.

And so while I was in grad school, I was interning and publishing.

And one of the internships turned into a job.

This was at Simon & Schuster.